I was visiting a dear friend recently when I happened upon a security failure.

My friend lives in an upscale, assisted living facility and recently had thousands of dollars withdrawn from her accounts via ATM.

Originally, we suspected the staff at the facility, but as I learned more about the incident, and recalled a few seemingly unrelated items I had heard about a few weeks before, I began suspecting it was a family member.

Within a week, the police identified the family member responsible, who confessed. It was sad.

However, my friend wanted a locked compartment in her apartment where she could feel it was safe from the assisted living staff (and other family members, I suppose).

So with my friend present, the maintenance man unwrapped a new locking mechanism and keys from a factory-sealed package and installed the lock on a lower kitchen cabinet.

Did any alarms go off in your head yet?

First, the cabinet was a lower kitchen cabinet. What elderly person wants to bend over and try to see where to insert a key to unlock the cabinet? That’s a user interface failure: the installer failed to take into account his audience, and the result was disastrous.